Teacher of the year honored
Published 9:00 am Friday, February 12, 2016
From left, Tommy Strahan recited the oath of office. He was sworn in as a school board member during Thursday’s Poplarville School Board meeting. He is pictured with school board President Violine Jordan.
Photo by Cassandra Favre
Thursday, the Poplarville School Board acknowledged the exemplary efforts of some of the district’s educators.
A teacher from each of the district’s four schools was chosen as the 2016 Teacher of the Year.
Teachers recognized included, Lisa Cuevas from Poplarville Lower Elementary, Brook Letort from Poplarville Upper Elementary, Gina Martinez from the Middle School of Poplarville and Laura Baird from Poplarville High School.
Cuevas was also honored as the District’s Teacher of the Year and her application will be submitted to the state for a chance to be selected as the Mississippi Teacher of the Year.
District peers elected Marlene Cole as the 2016 Administrator of the Year. Cole is the director of the district’s career development center.
Poplarville Superintendent Carl Merritt also recognized school board members Violine Jordan, Shirline Magee, Samuel Gentry, Lisa Graves and Strahan.
“They don’t just show up at the regular board meeting for an hour,” Merritt said. “They have tremendous responsibilities from one board meeting to the next. They answer phone calls from the public and communicate with me on a weekly basis on whatever issue that might be in the district. They work very hard with very little compensation. They do it for the love of community and the kids.”
In other action the board:
–– Approved a contract with the National Guard for the use of their facilities to host the Middle School’s Spring Fling.
–– Approved to extend the Malwarebytes agreement, which is the district’s virus protection computer program.
–– Approved job description updates for district federal programs director Konya Miller and finance director Samantha Sandifer. Beginning July 1, Miller’s reclassification will be assistant superintendent and Sandifer’s will be chief financial officer.
–– Accepted the donation of a police vehicle from the city of Poplarville. The car will be utilized by the school resource officer at the middle school.
“It gives us some visibility of law enforcement at the middle school and also helps with home visits,” Merritt said.
The next school board meeting will be held on March 7 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the district office on Julia Street.
